Superstar Singer Gets Big Dose of Reality TV

Martha may have gone in quietly, but Sarolta is going out with a bang. While Martha Stewart, America's goddess of home entertaining, did her best to inconspicuously slip into jail the Friday before last, following her conviction for obstruction of justice, Hungarian pop queen Sarolta Zalatnay is allowing the entire world in on her last days of freedom. Forget about press conferences or tearful tell-all talk-show appearances. The 56-year-old Zalatnay, who is set to start serving a three-year sentence for fraud on Tuesday, is the star of her own reality show tomorrow night on RTL Klub, a program expected to be so deliciously brutal that the network has taken the extreme step of pre-empting "Survivor."

Known to most normal, tabloid-reading Hungarians as "Cini," Zalatnay may be the most internationally-famous Hungarian entertainer of the last half-century. She burst onto the scene in 1966, when she came in second place in a national talent competition so popular it made "Megasztár" look like a weekly crop report. She then went to England, where various members of the Bee Gees wrote songs for her and, if Cini is to be believed, proposed marriage.

Despite her promising career abroad, Zalatnay returned to Hungary, and settled into the life of a Socialist-era star. In the 1980s the story of her love life was a best seller.

A long and inevitable slide into obscurity ended when she was accused of fraud in connection with a failed TV venture in which she borrowed heavily from investors, including notorious cross-dresser Terry Black (Károly Rácz). One of the investors later committed suicide, and two of Zalatnay's associates were convicted in the case.

"I made a mistake, but I don't feel guilty," Zalatnay defiantly said right before being found guilty.

Faced with debts of Ft 120 million (roughly €490,000) Zalatnay agreed to have herself filmed around the clock during her last days on the outside. According to tabloid Blikk, RTL will pay Zalatnay Ft 5 million to let her fans watch her tie up her loose ends, and otherwise prepare for her time in the slam.

It is not likely to be an uplifting show, as Zalatnay is dogged by cancer, and worries about what will happen to her 14-year-old adopted daughter, who is apparently getting bullied at school because of her mother's notoriety. (It probably doesn't help that young Niki is actually the daughter of Sarolta's second husband and his mistress.)

All in all it doesn't sound like our idea of a fun Saturday night. Then again, we've always taken our reality in limited doses.